In printing systems, and especially roll-to-roll printing systems, in which the printed media output from the printing system is in the form of generally continuous medium, the printed medium is collected or gathered by winding the medium onto a take-up roll. In doing so, there is always the issue of ensuring the printed medium or medium is wound onto the roll in an orderly and consistent manner, i.e. without any skewing and without creases or damaged edges. If the printed medium or medium suffers from skewing and/or creases or damaged edges, not only can this seriously impair or damage the quality of the printed output, but a print medium jam could arise and/or an operator may have to correct the problem manually. The time required for a manual intervention by an operator to investigate and correct such a problem can be significant. In some cases, the printing system must be temporarily stopped or interrupted, and the printed medium may be damaged to such an extent that a re-run of the print-job is also necessary, all of which can have a major impact upon system productivity.
One of the techniques used to date in an effort to ensure an orderly winding of the printed medium onto a take-up roll has been to provide flanges on the ends of the take-up roll, and especially on the ends of the take-up roll core, onto which the printed medium is wound. In this regard, a take-up roll typically includes a roll “core” formed as tubular or cylindrical roll comprised of cardboard or plastic or any other suitable material onto which the printed medium is wound. In some cases, however, this technique of providing flanges on the ends of the roll core has a tendency to cause damage to the edges of the printed medium as it is wound onto the driven and rotating take-up roll. It also has a disadvantage that the take-up roll core must be specifically selected to have the same size as the width of the printed medium. A further problem arises when feeding the web medium from the take-out roll in the loading tray through the printing system to the take-up roll. The transport path needs to be free of obstructions to avoid damaging the medium. When the flanges are not aligned with respect to the side edges of the medium moving towards the flanges, the medium may come into contact with the one or both of the flanges. The medium may thereby be damaged or directed outside of the transport path. When using automatic web feeding by means of a transport mechanism, collision between the flanges and the medium will likely result in a paper jam, and in consequence downtime of the printing system and a loss of print material. When using manual feeding an operator is required to first bring the medium to flanges, then release the web medium and reposition the flanges, after which the web medium is brought to the take-up roll. This operation is not only cumbersome and time consuming, but may cause contamination of the medium as the operator cannot simultaneously hold the sheet and reposition the flanges. It would therefore desirable to provide a new and improved means for guiding a print medium onto a take-up roll in a printing system.